Images

Marty Garcia and Sam Parker begin installing the timber boards for the 30' x 10' raised bed of a pollinator garden behind the orchard at the USGS Conte Lab.

Close up of the newly installed sap flow sensors at Blackwater National Wildlife Preserve. These sensors were installed by EESC's Justine Neville and Ken Krauss of the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center in Lafayette, LA. These sensors will be used to analyze how the trees in a marsh ecosystem respond to changing ecological and climatic conditions.

EESC USGS Mendenhall Fellow Justine Neville installing sap flow probes at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge with USGS colleague Ken Krauss from USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center in Lafayette, LA. Sap flow probes will be used to monitor transpiration rates in coastal forests to assess the water usage of trees experiencing stress from inundation.

Justine Neville and Brendan Crossman, USGS scientists at EESC, assembling scaffolding for solar panels at Blackwater National Wildlife Preserve. These solar panels will charge the batteries of the newly installed sap flow sensors on site.

Pictured is a federally endangered Shenandoah salamander (Plethodon shenandoah). NEARMI has been working for years to study this species in hopes to protect it from extinction. To learn more about the research being done on this species, visit https://www.usgs.gov/nearmi. 

Black basses (Micropterus spp) are enigmatic North American sportfishes that support the most economically valuable freshwater sport fishery in the United States and serve as keystone predators within aquatic ecosystems.

Close-up of an invasive blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus) specimen collected during fieldwork in the Nanticoke River system to assess impacts of this invasive species on aquatic resources in the region.

Micah Kieffer, John Burns (volunteer), and Ted Castro-Santos performing final preparations on the 23 foot Commander for service in the initial year of EESC's Delaware River shad study.

Micah Kieffer, EESC sturgeon biologist and a member of NOAA's sturgeon recovery network, returns to the S.O. Conte Research Laboratory with a young adult Atlantic sturgeon that was found on the shore in Reverse, Massachusetts in February of 2022.  Fish is scheduled for necropsy in the days to come.

Sunrise on the power canal adjacent to the S.O. Conte Research Laboratory in late February.

Chuck preps the ground for EESC Native Bee Lab's Volunteer Hoop House Raising at Patuxent in mid February. He made sure we set up on a stable well drained spot

With the willing help, and creative problem solving skills of roughly 20 volunteers throughout the day,  these two structures emerged. Bolts were tightened down, people quickly figured out what needed to happen and by the end of the day two Hoop House structures were up and almost ready for the clear sheeting that will cover them.

A field at the Bee Lab is leveled with gravel in preparation for the Hoop House area. Disassembled Hoop House parts were laid out on the leveled gravel to be sorted, lined up and put together. Roughly 20 volunteers showed up to help align and set the Hoops in to place. 

Photo of a 1:4 scale model of the novel d-cylinder fish ladder in the hydraulics laboratory in Turners Falls, MA.

Ice fishing for yellow perch at Lake Habeeb, Rocky Gap State Park, Alleghany County, Maryland

USGS map showing the movement of a lesser scaup infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza (red line) compared to four lesser scaup not infected (maroon, yellow, blue and black lines). Movement was recorded January 23 to 26, 2022. The black dot identifies where the birds were captured and released in Maryland.

Photo Contest | Winter 2022 | Honorable Mention 1
Amphibian research technician with begrudgingly cooperative salamander

This is a long-tailed salamander (Eurycea longicauda), which can be easily identified by its unique pattern and long tail. The tail of the long-tailed salamander can measure up to the twice the length of the body. This species is stream-adapted, meaning that the larvae are fully aquatic and live in streams.

A map of where birds were banded in 2021, in blue, a total of over 600,000 banding records.

A map of where previously-banded birds were found in 2021, in pink, a total of almost 120,000 encounter and recapture records. An “encounter” is any observation of a previously-banded bird, of which a “recapture” is a special case where the bird is captured by a permitted bander, either the person who originally band

A Savannah Sparrow at the Patuxent Research Refuge.  Patuxent Research Refuge, PG Co., MD